Spring is here and many beautiful flowers are greeting us with their wonderful colors and shapes. It has been an eventful month and much has been done here pertaining to field work. We were able to survey for and gain some new information on Ivesia webberi, which is a threatened species and near being listed. That was a very interesting plant and it makes quite a show when you see it up close. The days have been very nice here and the winds of the Sierra Nevada Mountains help make the days quite joyous. It has been nice to simply listen to the wind as it flows across the landscape through the sagebrush and junipers. Also some new friends have arrived in the sagebrush preparing for the nesting season: Spizella breweri; Brewer’s Sparrow. They have quite a buzzy tune and are wonderful to listen to and watch as they proclaim their song across the landscape. The Desert Horned Lizard, Phyrnosoma platyrhinos, is a very interesting and amazing creature to behold. They have an incredibly cryptic coloration to their scales and also they have a interesting technique they use to blend in to the environment.  It’s called shimmy burial! They shimmy into the soil and cover all of their body except for their head, helping them to prey on one of their main food items; ants.

Enjoy the beautiful season of spring my friends,

Ethan

Carson City Field Office-BLM